Ag Provides Important Geopolitical Stability to Countries

Ag Provides Important Geopolitical Stability to Countries

Earlier this summer I met with six Nuffield Farmers from Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Since 1947 the Nuffield Farm Scholarship program provides an opportunity for its participants from nine different countries to explore and research several other countries' agriculture.

One of the six Nuffields,Andrew Clarke is from Ringwood North in Victoria, Australia and is the chief viticulturist for Yering Station in the Yarra Valley. Clarke is responsible for all viticultural programs and vineyard management on the property.

Clarke shares one of the things really impressed him during his travels across Southeast Asia, China and Canada prior to arriving in the United States

Clarke: "I think for me, the fact that agriculture is so — particularly in Australia we look at it from a production perspective and it is all about getting maximum efficiencies out of your system. There is so much more to it. It's so much more in a social structure — geopolitically it is very important. Things like the International Rice Research Institute in The Philippines since they've started doing research there on rice production. Improving efficiencies there, there hasn't been a famine through Southeast Asia in 50-odd years and that is almost a direct correlation with that. If you can give geopolitical stability to a region that is huge."

Previous ReportUSPB CEO Gives Update on Potato Friendly Salad Bar
Next ReportRevitalizing Small Towns and Communities in Rural America